To allegedly speed up the game, save wear on the pitchers. Damn it's not like the man is throwing heat. An even more idiotic move pending, in one of the "A" Divisions of the PCL when a game hits extra innings each team will be automatically permitted to start the inning with a man on 2nd base. Damn, I thought teams had to earn their wins. Don't know how the Players union will accept that. I don't know about anyone else but I'm not exactly all warm and fuzzy over directions this game is taking.
Gregg Zaun's take TL;DW some pitchers flub the intentional balls and give base runners an opportunity to advance or score Edit: looks like the video is gone
...I suppose I understand them wanting to speed up the game but geez, how many intentional walks do we see per game?...and how long does an intentional walk take, ...maybe 30 seconds. ...and speeds, you're right, I've seen some strange things happen during intentional walks and have seen the pitcher throw it over the catcher's head many times.
That's right........cheapen the game for the sake of speeding up the game! Forget about the game's intricacies. The magic of baseball is always in the details. Take away the details, the game becomes naturally lacking. Might as well throw batting practice pitchers to nine players; give each batter four at bats; whoever scores most, wins. Game ends in one hour and a half. Everybody goes home. Fast & quick.
^^^what's next?...each team starts every every inning with a "designated runner" on 2B... and each batter only gets 2 strikes instead of 3...and all foul balls/tips count as strikes?
Dumbest rule change in a while. If they wanted to speed up the game then why does replay take so long? And does TV need all those commercials?
Ditto, cut the commercials. Tho' I despise the thought of any team putting more advertisements and broadcasts into the sport. The constant backstop flipping banner/ad, isn't it just that?; ie constant advertising? So why all the commercials? Someone on MLB mentioned putting Ad Patches on Uni's, .... now that is bullshit, as well as furtherization of commercialization of our sport, aka pussification of mlb....(no pun but a lot of shuns).... here's some data: American League teams issued 342 intentional walks last season, while 590 were given by National League clubs. The average intentional walks per AL team in 2016 was 22.8 IW's; and 39.3 per NL Team. That’s a grand total of 89 pitches by each AL team per season; 156 pitches by each NL Team; that would not have to be thrown if the new rule were implemented. MLB wants to eliminate 89 pitches per AL team per season, 156 per NL Team- per season; less than ONE pitch per game, per team...! Now that's really going to speed MLB up... Since when will raising the strike zone/a higher strike zone, help induce a faster game? Pitchers with high ground ball percentages would disagree....~!~
I want to see the study of how much time they think they're saving by avoiding the four pitches of an intentional walk. It was going to be an AB anyway. There's plenty of other things they can do to speed up the game. Changing fundamental parts of the game shouldn't be one of them. I will be sick if we ever see something as stupid as extra innings starting with a man on second base.
^^^^ I'd too.... Seem's like MLB want's to expedite the game, yet increase revenue, almost polar opposing thoughts..... imo, MLB is getting carried away, when they think every fkng year they've got to come up with rule changes, and ideas for future rule changes; as if this were a process improvement engineering convention or event; instead of a classic old grand game. If MLB want's to change the game without Players consent, then they might as well bring in new technologies which would eliminate any human error, ie strikes/balls, outs, et al. Not the type of game I'd ever watch. I'm tired of MLB thinking out loud, that they've got to redefine the game.... without anyone other than Owner's agreeing. IMO; Manfred (and Owners he's in full agreement with) - has taken a step backwards; and thinks he's walking down Selig Lane. I liked his initial approach to his job last year, but have since lost a ton of respect in his last press conference. His "we're going to do these things in the future, with or without players consent", utterly stinks....
